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Food Rationing
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Returning to the war years, I had no perception of the constraints of food rationing. For me it was how things were; for my mother, it must have been really hard to feed three people on very limited rations. There was no butter at all; margarine was the substitute and it seemed perfectly fine to me.
Eggs were allocated at about one a fortnight and I am sure I was favoured with those intended for my parents. Jam, marmalade and similar extras did not come from shops at all between 1939 and 1947. My mother had a large preserving pan for making jam and marmalade, but that collected dust for years until oranges began to reappear long after hostilities ended.
Meat was severely rationed and many families kept a few chickens who recycled food waste into eggs and then presented themselves for stewing when they were of riper years. Very occasionally a rabbit would appear and my mother was adept at turning it into a chicken. For many years after the war food supplies were severely restricted, and if you couldn't get a chicken a rabbit would do. The recipe was to remove the hip bones before cooking and it was then said to taste like chicken. I think the converse applied. If you found the pelvis structure of a rabbit in your chicken dinner, you knew the poacher had called.
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